SAGINAW, MI — If Saginaw School District were to close Saginaw High and two other schools, one board member believes 1,000 students would leave the district.

The Saginaw School District Board of Education met Tuesday, Feb. 11 for more than four hours to discuss four citizen-created plans to restructure the cash-strapped district. About 70 people attended the meeting.

Board member Delena Spates-Allen said this is one of the toughest decisions she’ll make in her life.

“That’s
what true leadership is all about: Making tough decisions,” she said.
“It’s about one thing: these children and making sure these babies have
an equitable education."

Saginaw schools has a $6.1 million deficit this year and must work out a plan to decrease the deficit this year and next and submit the plan to the state by Tuesday, Feb. 18. District officials have to eliminate $32.6 million from the budget during a five-year period from 2011 to 2016.

The Saginaw School District operates on an $84.6 million budget for this school year.

Superintendent Carlton Jenkins on Monday, Feb. 3, unveiled a plan to close Saginaw High, Daniels Middle and Heavenrich Elementary schools, restructure the elementary schools and lay off 53 employees to save $4.6 million this year.

Leaders must submit a viable, revised deficit-elimination plan to the state in one week or lose $5 million in March state aid payments. The state this week gave the district a reprieve from the risk of losing more than $4 million in February.

Board member Rudy Patterson said closing the three schools would cause 1,000 students to leave.

“We’re going to destroy the district,” he said. “We will never get those children back.”

The school board will meet for another work session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, to piece the ideas together. The venue isn't yet decided, said President Beverly Yanca.

Plan 1

Saginaw residents John Pugh, Pamela Smith and Twannie Gray presented their ideas at Saturday's board meeting and returned Tuesday to answer questions.

Ideas included:

Closing the administration building and move operations to one of the high schools

Consolidating Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy and Handley School into the former Buena Vista High School

Closing the staff development building

Cutting four administrators at the middle and high school levels

Cut grounds crew, sanitation crews at all closed buildings

Pugh said while the group didn't have numbers to identify total savings, he's willing to sit down and figure out the totals with the appropriate person.

“Let’s look at different cuts,” said Gray, instead of cutting 39 teachers and moving 900 students.

Three board members — Ruth Ann Knapp, Mattie Thompson and Glenda Richardson-Vaughn — said SASA was built specifically for those students and should remain as it is.

Eliminating grounds crew at these buildings isn't feasible because the district must be a good neighbor, Knapp said, and sanitation crews don't spend much time at each building.

Knapp said principal cuts are not out of line, and more security could help cover the buildings.

"This plan does cut from the top," Patterson said. "They didn't displace any teachers and any students."

He guessed it could save $1.5 million and if tweaked, more than $2 million.

Plan 2

Angela Cannon gave the district a second plan in advance of the meeting, which she did not attend.

The plan organized East and West elementary schools, including turning the closed Webber building into a combined elementary and middle school and Daniels Middle into an elementary school.

Handley School would move to Thompson Middle, and Saginaw's West Side schools include other consolidation.

Both Saginaw High and Arthur Hill High schools would be seventh-through-12-grade schools.

Thompson said the Webber building is decaying, the ceiling is falling in and has mold growing.

"If you open that building, you have to bring it up to code," she said. "How much will that cost?"

Robert Bradley, buildings and grounds director, estimated it would take at least $1 million.

Patterson said neighborhood schools are attractive for people moving in to the city. He said he'll vote against any seventh-through-12th-grade high school plan of the potential danger to students, who already are fighting in schools.

"It's not conducive to learning," he said.

Plan 3

Saginaw City Councilman Norman Braddock, who was not representing the City Council, brought forward a plan that would close seven buildings and reopen one.

"This is nothing personal. This is business," he said.

Ideas include:

Make Saginaw High and Arthur Hill High schools seventh-through-12th-grade buildings

Offer to sell Thompson Middle School to Delta College, or move Handley there

Close the staff development and administration buildings

Close Heavenrich and Houghton elementaries, move them to Claytor school in Buena Vista Township

Give the Saginaw Career Center to the Saginaw Intermediate School District

Braddock said Buena Vista students would be glad to have a building in their neighborhood because the district isn't just the city of Saginaw.

Cutting schools means cutting administrators and staff, he added.

"I could put numbers to my plan, and I guarantee it would be your biggest savings," Braddock said.

Plan 4

The final proposal is from Mike Thompson, a former Saginaw News education reporter. He was not at the meeting but gave an overview of his plan during the Saginaw High meeting on Saturday.

The proposal would put the district into quadrants and consolidate elementary students into four buildings, including Webber school. SASA would incorporate Handley students.

Board members earlier agreed the district cannot use Webber.

Knapp said the plan isn't to her liking, but she would like the plan costed out because it would rip the Band-Aid off once.

Patterson said he is in opposition to closing school buildings.

Tuesday deadline

Declining enrollment and increase expenses have contributed to the district's financial troubles. Saginaw schools have lost 4,410 students since 2004. That amounts to a roughly $31 million loss in state funding.

Since 2004, Saginaw School District has closed 13 school buildings.

Sue Rutherford, Michigan Education Association Uniserv director, said it's not feasible for the district to keep all its staff and keep all its buildings open.

"I believe we need to get this done a lot more quickly than we are," she said.

The board is putting the livelihood of 600 people in jeopardy by not turning in a deficit elimination plan sooner than Tuesday, she said.

— Lindsay Knake covers education for MLive/The Saginaw News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.